Influenza still belongs to the great plagues of mankind having a pandemic potential. There are only a few drugs against the inducing pathogens, the influenza A viruses, which are all immediately directed against the virus. The problem is that resistances can develop relatively quickly. Further, there is a risk that the avian influenza epidemically growing in fowl, induced by infections with the H5 influenza A virus, is also transmissible to humans. In particular persons that come into contact with infected fowl are therefore at high risk. In particular it has to be noted that increasingly insensitivities of the H5N1 viruses against the few approved drugs such as oseltamivir are reported. There is therefore an urgent need of novel and efficient anti-influenza drugs for the prophylaxis as well as for the treatment of viral infections, and the drugs should not trigger any resistances if possible.
From the document WO2004/060360 A1, it is known that acetylsalicylic acid is able to inhibit the transcription factor NF-κB in host cells and that in the course of this inhibition of the NF-κβ signal pathway essential viral components will remain in the cell nucleus and cannot be integrated anymore in viral particles. From this document is further known the aerogenic administration of acetylsalicylic acid for the prophylaxis or treatment of viral infections.
For instance, from the document DE 102 02 019 A1, salts of the acetylsalicylic acid with basic amino acids are known in the art, the preparations obtained therewith being provided exclusively for the oral administration. From this document, further, the use of such salts for treating diseases of the rheumatic type, arthritides, neuralgias, myalgias, migraine, ischemic heart diseases, stroke, angina pectoris, myocardial infarct, bypass operations, PTCA, stent implantations, for the stimulation of the immune system of HIV patients, for the tumor prophylaxis, for the retardation of the cognitive decline due to the dementia syndrome, for the inhibition of gallstone formation and/or the treatment of diabetic diseases is known. The insofar known salts are furthermore already used under the trade name Aspisol® as drugs for treating asthma, hay fever, swellings of the nasal mucosa or chronic respiratory tract infections, and that in addition to the oral administration also for the injection. All these diseases do not have a direct correlation to viral infections by influenza viruses.
The use of pure acetylsalicylic acid as an antiviral agent, which is inhalatively administered as an aerosol into the respiratory tract or the lung, has proven itself in principle very well in the animal model. For humans, inhalation of pure acetylsalicylic acid may however cause strong irritations of the respiratory tract. Further, in individual cases, it was shown that an inhalation of acetylsalicylic acid may lead to asthma attacks for some sensitive patients. In any case, an aerogenic application of acetylsalicylic acid as an anti-influenza drug would therefore be contraindicated for asthma patients or persons with an asthma risk.